THE EFFECT OF
STEROIDAL HORMONES

Steroidal hormones given to livestock affect humans who consume them

Do women get breast cancer more often when their hormones are thrown out of whack? Of course. What about thyroid tumors and ovarian cancer – can those come from eating meat and drinking dairy from cows that are given hormones to make them more profitable? Yes, those tumors can come from hormone overload. Do men get testicular cancer from an overdose of hormones? Absolutely.

How much do you know about steroids? Do you know if steroids are a class of hormones or hormones a class of steroids? Then, what’s a steroid hormone? Overdosing on hormones can be linked to infertility and coronary heart disease.

You could be consuming hormones that are given to conventional, [CAFO] Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation raised turkeys, pigs and chickens too, so don’t think that it’s just red meat that’s bad for you, because that’s just a hoax to get you to choose the lesser of these “Invented” evils. Farm-raised fish are given hormones to make them bigger too. Imagine animals that are given extra hormones in the last two weeks before they are slaughtered, and those animals and their relatives that suffer before they die, sometimes hearing their fellow animals scream in pain and agony – all those stress hormones are released into the tissue, and you eat that! Do you look for non-rBGH (Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone) and non-rBST (same thing, different name) milk and cheese? Do you look for wild-caught fish that are NOT in the ocean anywhere near Fukushima? You might want to make some adjustments to your purchasing habits.

In most CAFOs, confined animal feeding operations, cows are forced by drugs to produce WAY TOO MUCH milk attached to high pressure milking systems, and their udders get infections. These infections, blood and and pus are passed into the milk and to the humans that consume it. The antibiotics given to fight the infections pass into the milk as well. Many hens are given drugs that make them lay WAY TOO MANY eggs and create health problems that supposedly justify more antibiotics. Are you eating antibiotic- and hormone-laden eggs? What about butter? Understand that there is a “dose” of drugs that humans get when they eat and drink by-products of CAFOs and animals fed genetically modified feed.

99% of feedlot cattle in U.S. are given steroidal hormone implants. What about here in Phil?

Every year, U.S. farmers raise about 35 million beef cattle. Of those entering feedlots, 99% are given steroidal hormone implants to promote faster growth, and that’s the same kind of muscle-building high powered androgens that athletes consume. A large percentage of poultry and pigs are fed these same drugs. Did you hear otherwise? They lied to you. Other animals receive estrogens, primary female sex hormones, in order to shut down the estrus cycle. Cow’s milk that is treated with rBGH has higher levels of IGF-1. Studies in humans, animals and cell cultures indicate that elevated levels of IGF-1 in humans significantly increases the risk of breast cancer!

Why does it say on labels that there is “no significant difference” in milk from cows that are not given this rBGH or rBST hormone? Do they mean flavor, quality or risk of cancer? You can bet there is with the latter, but the U.S. FDA is not out to help you stay organic and healthy, so you can perish that thought.

Did you know that many piglets are raped at industrial farms by older pigs? Imagine their depressed lives and how that affects their hormones and central nervous systems. What should you know about “veal crates” and the “debeaking” of hens without any anesthetic? You are what you eat, so if you eat animals that lead a short, miserable, depressed life, then what are YOU?

Humans are getting diseases from sick, depressed, abused animals that are shot up with hormones and antibiotics and dragged frightened to their death. Most conventional meat is not Kosher either, so the slaughter of the animal can be inhumane.

Do government websites warn people about hormone-laden meats causing cancer?

Although the use of hormones to promote an increase in lean muscle mass in beef cattle has not been legal in Europe since 1989, administration of combinations of hormonally active drugs to beef cattle has continued to be a common practice in the Philippines.

Over the past 2 decades, there has been a shift in the focus of research in endocrinology, cancer and developmental biology based on findings that hormones, hormonally active drugs and environmental endocrine disrupting chemicals in food cause epigenetic modifications of DNA and histone proteins (methylation/acetylation), which result in ‘programming’ of genes during tissue differentiation. The consequence of exposure to xenobiotic estrogenic chemicals can thus be disruption of the programming of metabolic and reproductive processes via epigenetic changes in DNA and associated proteins rather than DNA mutations. Dietary beef hormone injections are therefore a significantly suspect factor in cancer causation due to being a contributing factor in cellular replication errors.

History

Almost all beef cattle entering feedlots in the United States are given hormone implants to promote faster growth. The first product used for this purpose ­ DES (diethylstilbestrol) ­ was approved for use in beef cattle in 1954. An estimated two-thirds of the nation’s beef cattle were treated with DES in 1956 (Marcus, 1994, cited in Swan et al., 2007).

Today, there are six anabolic steroids given, in various combinations, to nearly all animals entering conventional beef feedlots in the U.S., Canada, and even the Philippines:

Anabolic steroids are typically used in combinations. Measurable levels of all the above growth-promoting hormones are found at slaughter in the muscle, fat, liver, kidneys and other organ meats. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration set “acceptable daily intakes” (ADIs) for these animal drugs, in spite of the fact that the scientific knowledge regarding any beneficial effects is non existent.

Questions and controversy over the impacts of these added hormones on human development and health have lingered for five decades. In 1988 the European Union banned the use of all hormone growth promoters. The ADIs on the books for years are based on traditional toxicity testing methods and do not reflect the capacity of these drugs, which are potent endocrine disruptors, to alter fetal and childhood development. According to Swan et al. (2007) ­

“…the possible effects on human populations exposed to residues of anabolic sex hormones through meat consumption have never, to our knowledge, been studied. Theoretically, the fetus and the prepubertal child are particularly sensitive to exposure to sex steroids.”

This gap in research is remarkable, given that every beef-eating American for over 60 years has been exposed to these hormones on a regular basis. To begin to explore possible impacts, Swan et al. (2007) carried out a study assessing the consequences of beef consumption by pregnant women on their adult male offspring. The families included in the study were recruited from the multicenter “Study for Future Families” (SFF).

The study team assessed sperm quantity and quality among 773 men. Data on beef consumption during pregnancy was available from the mothers of 387 men. These mothers consumed, on average, 4.3 beef meals per week, and were divided into a high beef consumption group (more than seven meals per week) and a low-consumption group (less than 7 per week).

The scientists compared sperm concentrations and quality among the men born to women in the high and low beef consumption groups. They found that:

* Sperm concentration (volume) was 24.3 percent higher in the sons of mothers in the “low” beef consumption group.
* Almost 18 percent of the sons born to women in the high beef consumption group had sperm concentrations below the World Health Organization threshold for subfertility ­ about three-times more than in the sons of women in the low consumption group.

The authors concluded that ­

“These findings suggest that maternal beef consumption is associated with lower sperm concentration and possible subfertility, associations that may be related to the presence of anabolic steroids and other xenobiotics in beef.”

This study lends urgency to the long-recognized need for the FDA to reconsider the acceptable daily intakes of hormones used to promote growth in beef feedlots. This reassessment will, in all likelihood, be resisted by the animal drug and beef industries, and once begun, will take many years to be carried out. In the interim, families wanting to avoid the risk of developmental problems in their male children can do so by choosing organic beef.

People turn a blind eye so they won’t have to think about the horrors of CAFO life. It’s like a holocaust, you know, but for animals. Plus, most meat is bleached or ammonia-treated to kill the E. coli and then dyed back pink like hamburger and steak to look attractive in the butcher’s window. They want you to believe that the meat just shows up magically, without all the horrific processing and inhumane living quarters. They don’t want you to believe that the animals are so fat that they can’t even stand on their legs anymore, and they just lie down in their own feces, waiting to be dragged onto a conveyor belt for mutilation. It’s sad but true. When you stop choosing these kinds of unethically produced meat, fish, milk, eggs, cheese and other dairy products, these evil companies and corporations suffer.

You can end so many cancers that spread from eating tainted meat full of hormones and antibiotics. Be that person who says no to GMO and CAFO and regain your health.